Green Papaya Salad

Green Papaya Salad (Som tum) muddled with dried shrimp, fish sauce, roasted peanuts and lime.

Ingredients for Green Papaya Salad:

• 250g. unripe young papaya
• 2-3 long beans halved crosswise (optional)
• 5 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 tbsp dried baby shrimp - pound to bruise
• 50g. roasted peanuts or cashews -  coarsely chopped

Green Papaya Salad Dressing:

• 1 1/2 tbsp palm sugar
• 1 1/2 fish sauce
• 1 tbsp green lime juice  (use tamarind in place of lime)
• 1 clove garlic, diced
• 2-3 green chilli padi - coarsely chopped  
• 2-3 red chilli padi - coarsely chopped
• Chopped handful of fresh coriander

How to make Spicy Green Papaya Salad:

1. Peel the green papaya with a sharp knife, then slice it in half and use a spoon to scrape out the seeds. Using the largest grater you have, grate the papaya, or you can use a potato peeler to create thin, ribbon-like strips. Place in a large bowl.
2. Cook long beans in medium saucepan of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Rinse under cold water. Cut into 2-inch pieces. 
3. Combine cooked long beans, cherry tomatoes together in the large bowl.
4. Dressing: Combine palm sugar, fish sauce and lime juice. Mix till sugar dissolves. 
5. Add in diced garlic, chilli padi and chopped coriander leaves. Mix well.
6. Pour dressing over the large bowl and toss. Sprinkle dried baby shrimp and peanuts over and serve.

Note: You can prepare this salad ahead of time, combine all ingredients except the nuts and the dressing. Leave it covered in the refrigerator  for few hours, or overnight. Add the dressing, dried shrimp and peanuts at the last minute, then toss and serve.

Photo Credit - plumandlion
Recipe Submitted by : Sue

How to make Acar Timun - (Spicy Cucumber Pickles)

Another Singaporean pickle recipe! These are a delicious twist on dill pickles. Acar Timun is a good combination to go with nasi beryani, nasi minyak, nasi tomato, steamed rice and ikan goreng. They're spicy in the sense of being spiced; if you like more heat, add more chili powder or chilli paste! Related recipe - Acar Buahan.

Acar Timun Ingredients

• 300 g cucumbers (julienne)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 100 g carrots (julienne)
• 80 g shallots
• 3-4 fresh red chillies (julienne)
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 4 slices gingerroot
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (not chili spice mix) or chilli paste
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar

Directions

• Cut cucumber in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Cut flesh into 3.5 cm juliennes.
• Mix 1 tsp salt with cucumbers, and let sit for 15 minutes to draw out the extra moisture.
• Cut the carrot into pieces the same size as the cucumber.
• Heat oil in a wok and add ginger and mustard seeds, cooking until mustard seeds pop. Stir in the turmeric and chili powder, then add the vegetables, sliced chillies, sugar, and salt and saute for 2 minutes (do not overcook, the vegetables should stay crunchy).
• Remove from heat and mix well with vinegar. Allow the vegetables to cool in the pan, then place in a jar. Refrigerate Acar Timun overnight before serving.

Chef's Recommendation! - Gado-Gado Surabaya (Recipe)

Gado-gado is a traditional dish in Indonesian cuisine, and is comprised of a vegetable salad served with a peanut sauce dressing. Although it is to be eaten as a main meal, many Western countries describe it simply as a salad. It is widely served from hawkers carts, stalls (warung) as well as in restaurants both in Indonesia and worldwide.

Gado-gado is part of a wide range of Indonesian sauce & salad combinations; with lotek, pecel and karedok. In many places, to retain authenticity in both the production and flavor, the peanut sauce is made in individual batches, in front of the customers (see picture left). However, since the dish has gained popularity (because of the increase of Asian-themed restaurants) Gado-gado sauce is now mostly made ahead of time and cooked in bulk, although this is probably more common in Western restaurants rather than in Indonesia. Compared to both standard Western salads and Indonesian versions of this dish, Gado-gado has much more sauce in it. Instead of being used as a light dressing, the vegetables should be well coated in the sauce.

Many stores now offer Gado-Gado dressing in dried blocks to which you simply add hot water, making it easier and cheaper to cook at home.

Gado-Gado Ingredients:
Blanched/steamed vegetables

• long green beans, cut into 4-5 cm long
• Chinese cabbage, shredded
• Bean sprouts

Fresh Vegetables

• Lettuce
• Tomato, wedged
• Cucumber, sliced

Other Complements

• Boiled/steamed potatoes, sliced
• Boiled eggs, wedged
• Fried/baked tempe
• Fried/baked tofu
• Lontong (rice cake with log shape), cut into 1 cm thick
• Ready-to-use fried shallot
• Melinjo nuts crackers
• Shrimp crackers

Gado-gado sauce

• 10 cloves garlic, stir fried/fried/roasted
• 300 g roasted/fried peanuts (In this case, I used 1 cup of organic crunchy peanut butter)
• 1000 ml coconut milk
• 10 red chilies, discard the seed and stir fried/fried
• 1 tsp terasi (dried shrimp paste), toasted
• 1 block of coconut sugar (about 62.5 grams)
• 2-3 tbsp rice flour dissolve in a small amount of water

Sambal

• 20 red bird eyes chilies, boiled /steamed
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• Sea salt as desired

Method:

Gado-Gado Sauce

1. Process garlic, peanuts/peanut butter, a half part of coconut milk, red chilies, terasi, coconut sugar in a food processor or blender.

2. In a sauce pot, combine processed mixture with the rest of coconut milk, stir and turn on the stove at low-medium heat. Stir occasionally.

3. Cook sauce until boiled, the volume reduced and the sauce surface looks a bit oily. Add rice flour mixture. Keep stirring until bubbling about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Sambal

• Combine all ingredients and process in a food processor/blender or you can grind them with mortar and pestle.

Serving

• Place lettuce, slices of lontong and boiled potatoes, blanched vegetables, wedges of boiled egg, slices of fried tempe and tofu, and wedges of tomato, slices of cucumber. Pour the warm sauce over, garnish with fried shallot, crushed shrimp crackers and emping nuts crackers. Put sambal on the side as people has different tastebuds to handle the spiciness. You can omit the sambal if you don’t like the spicy sauce.

Tips

- If the sauce to thick, add a small amount of water.

- Always try the sauce before remove from the heat, so you can add salt or coconut sugar to match your tastebuds.

- Serve gado-gado sauce while it is still warm. Warm up the sauce if it is cold.

- If you still have leftover sauce, keep it in a jar and refrigerate/freeze. You may use for other dipping purposes.